Seaweeds of the South African South Coast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Order Ceramiales

Family Ceramiaceae

Callithamniella tingitana (Schousboe ex Bornet) Feldmann-Mazoyer 1938: 1119

Plants differentiated into a creeping part and erect axes up to 1.5 mm tall. All axes clothed in determinate and indeterminate laterals, one per segment. Determinate laterals of fairly uniform length, about 10-14 cells long, unbranched or with one or two laterals usually given off from the third (and fourth) cell, the indeterminate laterals repeating the branching scheme of the main axis. Main creeping axis about 35 (-40) µm in diameter, the cells ca. 100 µm long; determinate laterals regularly 10 -14 cells long (irrespective of branching), the cells up to 40 µm long and 15 µm in diameter, the apices tapered. Attachment by means of unicellular haptera, developed from the basal cell of both determinate and indeterminate laterals.

Tetrasporangia in (up to three) small clusters on erect parts of the thallus, sporangia with a small stalk cell, measuring ca. 45x30 µm. Spermatangia on branchlets barely smaller than vegetative ones, one or two such branchlets occurring in addition to the vegetative branch of a segment. Only the top two or three cells of a spermatangial branch remaining sterile, the other cells each with ca. 5 spermatangium mother cells. Female structures not known.

Collections, ecology and regional distribution

On our coast known only from Mbotyi and Mkambathi, Eastern Cape (47), in the latter case epizoic on a limpet and a crab shell. C. tingitana was found in the extreme east of the area and may well extend into Kwazulu-Natal.

World distribution: widespread in the Mediterranean and temperate (mainly northern) Atlantic (Guiry & Guiry 2015).

Type locality: Tangier, Morocco (Schneider & Searles 1997, cited in Guiry & Guiry 2015).

Note: Although we have long been aware that the variation in Callithamniella in South Africa warrants the recognition of more than one species, this had so far not been formalized.

 

Callithamniella tingitana, sterile specimen, Mkambathi (stained slide).

Callithamniella tingitana, apex of sterile specimen, Mkambathi (stained slide).

Callithamniella tingitana, sterile specimen, showing branching (stained slide).

Callithamniella tingitana, tetrasporangial specimen, Mbotyi (stained slide).

 

References Callithamniella tingitana

Feldmann-Mazoyer, G. 1938. Sur un nouveau genre de Céramiacée de la Méditerranée. Compte Rendu Hebdomadaire des Séances de l Académie des Sciences. Paris. 207: 1119-1121.

M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2015. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched 11 November 2015.

 

Cite this record as:

Anderson RJ, Stegenga H, Bolton JJ. 2016. Seaweeds of the South African South Coast.
World Wide Web electronic publication, University of Cape Town, http://southafrseaweeds.uct.ac.za; Accessed on 26 April 2024.